The Last Man on Earth
by Ellie603
Summary: Monica and Chandler are heading to meet the rest of the gang when disaster strikes. The two friends are taken away from their city and everyone they care about with no way home. When their captors drag Chandler away from Monica, she wonders if she'll ever see her best friend again, but even if she does, it won't be in the Manhattan they know and love. AU
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I finished marathoning all 10 seasons of Friends in 10 days about a week and a half ago, and I've kind of been stuck on Monica and Chandler since. So last night I dreamt a plot for this really _really_ odd AU __fic with these two that I just had to write down. I had to flesh out the story a lot and change a few things (because half the stuff that happens in dreams does__n't make even a little bit of real life sense), but this whole idea is a genuine thing that happened in my dream so I've kind of been sitting here cackling all day as I typed this up. Anyway, I really hope you all find this even a little bit as entertaining as I did. Enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Friends. That would have been a really bad idea. _

* * *

Chandler and Monica stepped out of their apartment building onto the sidewalk, heading to Central Perk to meet up with the rest of the gang. Now that it was March, the layers of sweaters and coats required by winter were no longer needed, and Monica stopped for a moment to look up and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

As she looked away from the sky, she saw Chandler roll his eyes and shake his head at her, a small smile on his face. Monica was just happy that Chandler had survived his breakup with Kathy in the end of January and his more recent run in with Janice, which had resulted in an impromptu trip to Yemen just to escape from his insane ex-girlfriend. Monica's closest guy friend had, for the most part, returned to his normal, generally happy (well happyish), sarcastic self.

"Come on, Monica!" Chandler practically whined, "I'm hungry!"

It was Monica's turn to roll her eyes. "Fine, you big baby," she replied exasperatedly, though she was really more amused than annoyed.

Monica began walking toward the coffee house, smiling, Chandler falling in step beside her.

Suddenly, a massive, dark gray shape filled the sky. Chandler and Monica stared up at it, awe-struck, along with everyone else in the street and even the city. Heads poked out of doors and windows, cars stopped, and people raced outside, staring.

It was some sort of giant circular air ship, like a blown up version of a child's drawing of a UFO. It had seemingly come into existence out of nowhere; one second it wasn't there, and the next, it was.

"What the–" Chandler started, but stopped as a bright spotlight suddenly appeared coming from the center of the ship's underbelly. It rotated around, sweeping back and forth as though searching for something, pausing every few seconds before continuing.

And then the spotlight shined down on Monica and Chandler, and that's where it stayed.

Monica and Chandler stared at each other and then back at the blinding light that was fixated on them. Chandler reached out his arm around Monica, protectively, as she, in turn, clung to him.

"MONICA! CHANDLER!"

The pair turned toward the shout. Ross was sprinting up the street, closely followed by Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe.

"Guys!" Monica called back, happy and relieved to see her friends. She and Chandler made to run away from the light and join their friends, but they found themselves unable to move out of the beam.

"What's going on?" Chandler said, pushing against the light. "It's like some kind of force field."

Monica punched the beam around her, but her fist didn't make it past the edge of the spotlight.

"We can't get out," Chandler said, his voice quiet. "We're trapped."

"No." Monica's voice came out even more quietly than Chandler's had.

"No!" Her voice grew louder.

"NO!" She threw her whole weight against the edge of the light, but it held like it was solid metal. She banged on the side over and over, but nothing changed. They _were _trapped. Defeated, she shrunk down to the ground, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"Oh my God." Chandler threw his head in his hands, as he leaned against the invisible barrier. "What the hell is happening to us right now?"

The rest of the gang had now reached Monica and Chandler. Ross and Joey tried to barrel into the light, but they both bounced off as though the beam was made of rubber. Rachel's hand went to cover her mouth in horror, staring at her friends through the translucent, but seemingly unbreakable, wall. Phoebe walked closer to the light, reached out to touch it, but found that impossible.

Then Monica and Chandler were lifted off the ground, traveling slowly but surely up the beam toward the airship. Monica stood up instantly and flung her arms around Chandler, as he did the same to her. The two peered down at their friends who were gaping up at them. Monica could see Ross's lips move, screaming her and Chandler's names over and over, but she couldn't hear anything. Rachel and Phoebe were huddled together, tears traveling down their cheeks, panic in their eyes. Joey picked up some rocks from the edge of the street and started throwing them at the beam, anything to try to stop the light from taking Chandler and Monica, but there was nothing to be done.

Monica buried her face in Chandler's chest, and she felt him press his face into her hair.

"It'll be okay, Mon," he whispered near her ear. "It'll be okay."

Monica could tell he didn't mean it. They were being pulled into some giant spaceship by a weird beam of light that was somehow surrounded by a force field. How could anything be okay?

As they approached the ship, the center where the spotlight was coming from opened up; it seemed they were to be taken inside.

Monica took one last look down at the Manhattan streets below, as she and Chandler were lifted into the belly of the mega-sized craft. She could barely make out four little pinpricks standing together before the hatch they had been pulled up through slammed shut. She and Chandler had lost the rest of the gang or, more accurately, the rest of the gang had lost her and Chandler.

Monica found herself standing once again on solid ground, still clutching Chandler as though she would float away again if she weren't holding on to him. She gazed around the inside of the metal ship. They were in what seemed to be a circular cargo hold, lit by a giant light coming from the center of the ceiling. Metal barrels, boxes, and what looked like a long curled up chain ladder were piled up against the walls, which, for half of the hold, was actually a long ramp. The ramp led right around the hold up to what seemed to be an observation deck complete with railings on the inside that ran around the entire circle. An unusually tall and thin doorway faced them leading away off the observation deck, and, as Monica turned around, she could see there was a matching one on the opposite side. The doors set in the doorways were glass with metal crossbars menacingly placed across them in such a way that they would need to be physically moved to allow the door to open. Monica didn't take that as a good sign.

She glanced around for another way out, but the hatch they had entered through seemed to be the only other visible exit. There were no windows.

From up above them on the deck, there suddenly came a loud bang, and Monica saw the crossbar from the glass door facing them fall to the floor. The door opened and onto the deck stepped a creature unlike any Monica had ever seen.

It was humanoid in structure, though taller and thinner than any man. As it picked up and replaced the metal beam effortlessly, however, Monica realized that its arms must have been incredibly strong. It was green and hairless, wearing a metal suit that covered its arms, legs, and torso. Its face was almost like that of a frog, with bulging eyes, but the mouth was much more human-like in nature. And that human-like mouth was grinning. Grinning so wide that pointed teeth could be seen peeking out from behind its lips.

Monica breathed in sharply, and she felt Chandler's arms grip her even more tightly.

The creature stepped over to the railing that surrounded the deck and began to speak, still grinning. "Hello, hello, hello!" the creature said perfectly, his booming voice filling the entire hold. "How nice it is to actually have humans up here in our ship. I've been down to visit so many times, but it's lovely to actually have company of our own." He walked to the top of the ramp that led down to the floor where Monica and Chandler huddled together.

"Please, please, your names! I wouldn't want to be a terrible host to you," he said as he strolled down the ramp casually. "My name isn't really pronounceable in your English, so you can call me Vootil for short."

Monica and Chandler stared at this "Vootil," frozen, as he reached the floor of the hold.

"Now, now, don't be impolite. Your names, my friends, your names."

"'m Monica," Monica managed to get out while shaking.

"Chandler," Chandler squeaked out, his voice much higher pitched than usual.

Vootil's grin became, if possible, larger. "Monica and Chandler, how lovely of you to join us! Myself and my people are, as you would say, not from around here. Aliens, I believe you'd call us."

Monica's mouth fell open as she shook her head in disbelief, while Chandler made a noise that Monica understood plainly to mean "are you _kidding_ me."

"Yes," Vootil continued, ignoring his audience's evident shock, "we come from a long ways away, galaxies away really. We had some bad luck on our home planet, so we've been searching for another one. And how lovely it is that Earth seems to be perfect. After years of making contact with you humans by pretending to be part of your species, we now just need some first hand information before we can move in. That's where you two come in."

Monica saw Chandler beside her sputtering before finally forming a word. "WHAT?"

Vootil looked at Chandler inquisitively, his grin dimming somewhat. "Yes?"

Chandler stared at the alien incredulously. "You can't have _Earth_!" he said, trying to make clear that this was an obvious fact. "It kind of already has a pretty decent sized population. No room for you guys, sorry." Chandler removed his left hand from Monica and gestured out with it to emphasize his point.

Vootil's grin returned. "Oh Chandler, don't you see? The humans will take care of themselves; we just want Earth after they're gone. It won't be too much longer; there's always so much war and fighting. We'll just wait a couple thousand years in your time, and it'll be ripe for the taking. That's what happened back home for us, only we happened to be able to get off planet before everything completely collapsed. We could have gone back after everything was over, but really Earth is so much nicer than back home, so we have no problem with waiting."

"You're going to sit around up here and wait for a couple thousand more years?" Monica asked, finally finding herself able to form a sentence.

Vootil shook his head and laughed. "A couple thousand years down there is practically nothing up here, different place, different time. We'll keep you two up here for a year – there's lots of information we need to get from you both – and when we get back, we'll have a nice planet all for ourselves."

Monica's stunned expression grew cloudy. "But… but… our friends. Our families…" she trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Vootil adopted a sympathetic expression. "I truly am sorry about that, but that's part of why we took two of you. As long as you both cooperate, you two can stay together." The alien seemed to view this as a good deal.

Monica was not so convinced. "I have a brother!" she burst out, loudly. "Parents! A group of wonderful friends! A nephew! You can't tell me I won't be able to see them again!" Monica made to move toward the alien, but Chandler held her back.

"We'll figure this out, okay. Just calm down," he said to Monica, softly.

Then he looked up, facing Vootil head on, his eyes full of emotion. "If you need a human, fine, keep me. But at least let her go. She has such a wonderful life and so many people down there who care about her. You can't do this to her. Please."

Monica stared at Chandler wordlessly, staggered by her friend's offer to save her over himself.

"Chandler–" she started, but he shook his head.

"It's okay, Mon," he said simply.

Vootil smiled again sympathetically. "As nice as that sentiment was, Chandler, my friend, we actually need both of you, a man and a woman. But really don't worry, everything will be just fine, provided you do nothing to obstruct our operation here, of course."

Chandler hung his head, defeated, but Monica threw her arms around him nonetheless.

"Thank you so much, Chandler," she murmured into his shoulder.

"I didn't do anything," he replied, holding her tightly. "I couldn't save you."

Monica lifted her head up and locked eyes with her friend. "We'll figure this out," she said, echoing his words from a few minutes before.

He stared at her for a moment and then replied, "okay."

Monica inhaled deeply, and then turned back to face Vootil.

Vootil's grin had returned. "Are we ready to begin?"

Monica and Chandler glanced at each other before nodding solemnly.

"Wonderful!" Vootil shouted, almost jumping into the air. "Follow me then, my friends! I'll show you to your new home."

As Monica and Chandler followed Vootil to the ramp that led them out of the hold, Monica noticed a metal lever positioned at the top of the ramp. _That _has _to be what opens up the hatch at the bottom,_ Monica thought quickly. _If we could just pull it without Vootil noticing then we could grab that metal ladder and see if we can make it out of here._

Monica nudged Chandler and motioned to the lever with her elbow and then jerked her head back at the hatch.

Understanding dawned on Chandler, and he offered Monica the closest thing to a smile she'd seen from him since the arrived on the ship.

As Vootil reached the observation deck, Chandler sprang into action, grabbing the lever and pulling it as hard as he could. A loud creaking noise came from the center of the hold, and Monica found she had been right about what the lever controlled.

Vootil instantly spun around, grabbed Chandler with one arm, and reached for Monica with the other.

"RUN MONICA! GO!" Chandler shouted as he tried to wrestle away from the deceptively scrawny alien.

Monica stared at him wildly for a second, but as Vootil's hand snatched at her arm, she sprinted down the curved ramp and over to the ladder. It was made of extremely heavy chain, but she found that she was strong enough to drag it slowly over to the edge of the hatch as it unraveled slightly since it was attached to the wall.

Monica looked down from the hatch and found that the ship was thankfully still above the city. The ladder wasn't long enough to make it even close to the ground, but she was sure that there had to be helicopters and planes around the area considering the fact that aliens had just abducted two New Yorkers.

Just as Monica hauled the ladder over the edge, the hatch slammed shut, cutting through the thick metal chains like a knife through butter.

"Not so fast, Monica," Vootil's voice came from right behind her.

Monica whirled around to find herself face to face with the alien. His grin had completely disappeared now, replaced with a look of absolute malice.

"I said you two had to cooperate if you wanted everything to be okay, didn't I?" he spoke just above a whisper, his eyes flashing. "This isn't cooperating."

Behind Vootil, Monica could see Chandler being dragged away, bound and gagged, by another alien.

"What are you going to do to him?" Monica screamed. "Don't hurt him! Please don't hurt him!"

Vootil laughed mirthlessly. "You humans beg too much. Come along, Monica or you'll end up the same way as your dear friend."

Sobs wracked Monica's body, as Vootil tied her hands together, leaving her legs free so she could walk. He led her by her hands up the ramp, keeping her well away from the lever, not that she could have pulled it if she wanted to. The tears running down her face were making it nearly impossible for her to see where she was going, let alone try to escape again.

Vootil led her through the glass door opposite to the one that Chandler had been dragged through. After walking into what Monica discovered was essentially an elevator, Vootil pulled her down another corridor, ripped the binds off her hands, shoved her unceremoniously into a small room much like a prison cell, and slammed the door.

"We had nicer accommodations for you, but it seems this is all you really require." Vootil sneered through the metal bars that were set in the small window of the glass door. Instead of a single metal crossbar like the other doors, there were three at varying heights, which Vootil set up quickly. A small metal flap had been added in at the bottom, which Monica assumed must be for food.

"We'll start our sessions with you later, have a wonderful time!" Vootil's would-be kind exiting remark was tainted by the harsh and menacing sarcasm in his voice.

Monica had ceased crying, as she looked around the room hopelessly and flung herself down on the bed in the corner. It was extra long and extra thin, clearly made for an alien of Vootil's kind. What Monica had to assume were a toilet and a sink were situated in two other corners, and the door took up the last one.

_It's over,_ Monica said to herself over and over. _My life is completely over. I'm all alone, and I'm never going to get to see anyone ever again. Except maybe, maybe Chandler._

Monica thought about what Vootil had said before he had brought her to this cell. _"Come along, Monica or you'll end up the same way as your dear friend."_

Her chances of ever seeing Chandler again seemed incredibly slim in light of that remark. _What could they be doing to him? Why are they doing this to either of us? _Monica began sobbing again, burying her head into the not-at-all-comfortable pillow she had been provided with.

She thought of Ross screaming for her in the city streets. Of Joey throwing rocks to try to get them down. Of Rachel, horrorstruck, looking through the force field at them. Of Phoebe, trying to touch the light almost curiously, her expression shocked when she found it impossible. But mostly Monica thought of Chandler. Chandler, who had tried to reason with the awful alien to let her go, even if he had to stay. Chandler, who had told her to run and save herself as Vootil captured him. Chandler, who she had been going to leave behind to save herself. Chandler, who she needed to see one more time, just to say she was sorry for even thinking about going without him. Chandler, who she knew then meant more to her than anyone in the world.

Monica had nothing else to do, so she cried. She cried for her family and for her friends and for Earth itself, which apparently wouldn't be doing so well in the next couple thousand years. But then she found she couldn't cry anymore, so she slipped off, exhausted, into a fitful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: There's a line or two of dialogue near the end that's taken from "TOW the Jellyfish," which, like _Friends_, I obviously do not own._

* * *

The following weeks and months went by slowly and monotonously for Monica. Every day was the same; she would be given a breakfast so small it could barely be called breakfast before she was be taken by one of the alien guards to a room where one of a decent number of alien men and women would question her about Earth and the experience of life on the planet. She would then be escorted back to her cell where she would receive the most meager of lunches, and then all afternoon was to be spent in a machine where her body was tested in countless ways. Some tests were mental, others more physical. After a couple weeks, Monica had lost all interest.

At first, she asked questions of her own. Why did they need her for this? Why couldn't they do this back on Earth? Why hadn't the government found such a huge spaceship yet? And, most often, where was Chandler and was he okay?

Some of the aliens ignored her questions, Vootil particularly seemed to love to watch her face as her questions went unanswered, but a couple did try to help her out in some capacity. She learned that, while many of the aliens were able to spend time on Earth and learn the language well enough to use it almost exclusively, they still had very little information about the planet itself and, subsequently, needed actual human examples. They couldn't do their work on Earth because someone would discover it, which was exactly what the aliens didn't want. And no one had found the ship because they were able to make it invisible, solving the mystery of how it had appeared so suddenly out of nowhere the day Monica and Chandler had been taken.

On the subject of Chandler, however, not even the nicest of the aliens would offer her an answer. She received shrugs, answers of "I don't know what you're talking about", and even a "I don't think you'd really like to know that, Monica" accompanied by a menacing grin from Vootil. From all this, Monica believed more and more that Chandler was gone, or, at the very least, that she would never get to see him again. Soon, she stopped asking about him; it hurt too much.

One morning, long after she had lost count of the months she had spent in the ship, Monica caught a whisper between the alien questioning her that day and another one that interrupted their session.

"The scouting mission has just returned. Everything seems to have gone according to plan," said the alien that had walked in.

"Excellent!" the one questioning Monica replied. "Is the first group getting ready to go down?"

The other alien nodded. "They should be down by this afternoon."

Both aliens smiled excitedly, and the one not questioning Monica left.

"So you guys are getting ready to go down to Earth then?" Monica asked, resignedly.

The alien's smile grew larger. "Finally! It's been so boring being cooped up in here for the past couple years. It'll be nice to stretch my legs and to have something to walk on that's not metal."

Monica's lips moved upwards for a moment in the weakest attempt at a smile, but she found that she couldn't bring herself to do it. She hadn't had a single thing to smile about since she had been taken from home.

Aside from this conversation, nothing in Monica's life really changed during the next few weeks. She had the same regular sessions and the same pitiful meals; however, the demeanors of those who questioned her and studied her had changed. The aliens were restless and excited, much like children during the last leg of a long road trip that ends with the prospect of a fun vacation.

However, the time came at last for effects to reach Monica. As she awoke one morning, Vootil was staring at her through the glass door.

"Good morning, Monica!" he said, his voice almost as cheerful as it had been the day Monica had first met him. "Rise and shine, for today we land on Earth and return you, as promised, to your home."

Monica held little enthusiasm at the prospect of a home without her family and friends, but the idea of getting off the horrible ship and leaving her tiny cell was definitely amenable to her.

Vootil practically skipped back down the hallway, saying he would be back to get her in twenty minutes time, as Monica prepared herself for the day in whatever ways she could.

Vootil, as promised, was back in exactly twenty minutes, and he led her down the corridor to the elevator and then out through a doorway.

Monica realized with a start that she was on the observation deck where she had been brought in. Aliens were pouring out the doorway opposite hers, the one where Chandler had been taken, so she searched, halfheartedly, through the sea of tall green heads for one that was sandy-brown. When Chandler was nowhere to be found, Monica's heart only dropped the smallest amount; she hadn't expected him to be there.

As the aliens crowded around the hatch, one of the creatures left on the observation deck pulled the lever to open it up.

The ship seemed to have stopped on some sort of makeshift landing pad that allowed the ship to remain far enough off the ground that the aliens could easily disembark through the center hatch.

Vootil, leading Monica, forced himself into the flood of the creatures, clearly wanting to get off the ship as badly as any of the others.

As Monica made her way out from under the ship's edge, she found herself in the sunlight for the first time in what must have been at least a year. She breathed in and looked up, letting the sun warm her, just as she had that March day when she had been here last.

When she looked back to Earth, she found that while the sun was exactly as it had been, the same could not be said for much else.

All around her the earth was ashen; small piles of rubble littered the ground, but little else was visible. Far off behind her Monica could see what was left of a body of water, though it's usual blue-green color was closer to black than anything else.

"Where are we?" Monica said to no one in particular.

From beside her, Vootil answered, smirking, "don't you recognize New York City when you see it?" He laughed ruthlessly. "You humans and your war."

_New York City?_ Monica thought to herself. _How can that be possible?_

"Over here!" called a far off alien that seemed to be part of a smaller group.

Vootil grinned excitedly, hurrying forward. "I see you all did a good job: very nice landing pad," Vootil said to the alien that must have been a part of the first group to come that Monica had heard about weeks ago.

The other alien waved his hand as though to say it was nothing. "Everything's ready down that way if you all want to settle in," he said with a nod to what looked like a large encampment behind him.

"Okay friends!" Vootil yelled to the rest of the aliens, who stopped talking as he turned to them. "We did it! Head to camp down behind me, and we can all get to work!"

There was an overwhelming cheer as the aliens started stampeding toward the camp, eager to begin their new lives.

"And now you," Vootil said, turning to Monica. "Here's where we part ways. If you head west you'll find a little human oasis, you might say, just out of the city. It seems that some of your rural people tried to grow crops after the nuclear disaster, and even though they were all wiped out eventually, their plants and trees are still intact. There should be enough over there for you to live on, and enough materials for you to fashion yourself some shelter as well. Oh, and a gift, for your trouble."

As Monica stared at him, astonished that he expected her to simply go off, make herself some shelter, and eat whatever plants she could find, Vootil walked to the entrance of the ship and quickly returned with what looked like a silver motorbike.

"It hovers off the ground a bit, so it can ride over anything, and it's even faster than one of your human cars. Good luck, Monica, maybe I'll see you around some time." Vootil hurriedly scampered away before Monica could reply indignantly that she could _not_ go live off in the middle of nowhere by herself for the rest of her life.

Monica stood alone for a moment watching the aliens in the distance setting up shelter and reveling in their new surroundings. Then she glanced at the bike. _Oh well, I guess this is all I can really do, _she thought, shrugging as she hopped on.

As she started the bike, Monica found it as easy to handle as a regular bicycle, and soon she was zooming off into the distance, away from the rubble of Manhattan towards the patch of green she could see far away in the distance.

Relatively quickly, she came to an enormous trench, with fairly steep banks that seemed to be at over half a mile wide. _The Hudson,_ Monica suddenly realized, _completely dried up._

She emerged from the shell of what used to be a flowing river in little time and found herself on better looking ground. New Jersey, it seemed, had faired a little better than the city next door. The ground was still blackened, but patches of grass poked through, and the amount of rubble was significantly less than it was where she had come from.

The green blur in the distance had been steadily growing, and Monica could just barely make out some trees standing over what must have been extensive vegetation.

After nearly an hour more of riding, Monica had reached the oasis, as Vootil had called it. Trees and plants of all kinds were growing all together. She could see wild berries and nuts on bushes beside innumerable flowers. She leaned her bike against one of the larger trees and was pleased to find an ordinary apple tree not ten feet away. Picking a nice sized one from the tree she took a bite and sighed contentedly. She had really missed the little things like this.

As she ate the fruit, grabbing an extra one for when she finished, she wandered through the trees and bushes, making sure to stay near the edge so she didn't lose sight of her bike. But then she spotted something glinting in the sunlight about fifty feet away. It was another silver bike, just like hers.

The second apple she had picked dropped out of her hand as she stared at the bike. The only way someone could have gotten that bike was from the aliens. And the only other human to have been with the aliens was…

"Oh my God, Chandler," Monica said, tossing away her apple core and running as fast as she could toward the other bike, looking all around her for any sign of her long lost friend.

When she reached the bike she found a half built shelter, decent enough for someone to spend a good amount of time in, provided it wasn't raining, since the roof didn't seem to be quite watertight.

"Please be around here, Chandler. Please," Monica whispered to herself, as she ventured deeper into the bushes. And, as she came out from behind a tree, there he was.

His clothing was ripped, his legs looked scratched up, and his hair had grown a little out of control, but he was there. Right in front of her. Alive. He was kneeling with his back to her as he gathered what looked like berries into a pile on a large leaf. Another leaf filled with nuts sat beside it.

Monica's breath hitched in her throat as her eyes filled with tears that for the first time in so long weren't of sadness, but were rather ones of complete and utter joy.

"Chandler," she choked out, her voice quiet, but perfectly audible over the sounds of the wind rushing through the leaves around them.

Chandler turned around on his heels, startled, and fell back into the berry bush he was picking from as soon as he saw his friend.

"M… M… Monica?" he said, struggling to stand, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide.

Monica stared at him and smiled for the very first time in a year. "Chandler. You're okay," she breathed.

Chandler finally stood up and walked toward her, shaking his head in disbelief, his arms opening.

Monica ran to him, and the two met in an embrace that told Monica just how much he had missed her and which she hoped told him just how much she had missed him too.

"Oh Monica, I thought I lost you," Chandler whispered into her hair. "I just kept seeing you standing there face to face with Vootil right by the hatch and for all I knew he threw you out or had you killed or something horrible. And then no one would tell me anything at all about you. And I just kept thinking that this was my fault. If I had fought Vootil off just a bit longer you could have escaped. Oh I'm so so sorry Mon. But, God, I've missed you so much."

Monica could feel Chandler's tears falling on her back, as she pressed her face into his shirt, crying just as hard.

"It was the same with me, Chandler," Monica murmured back. "I saw you dragged off, and they wouldn't even let you talk, and they told me nothing, and I thought for sure they'd done something awful to you. But it's okay. It's okay. I'm here now, and none of this was your fault. I'm so sorry I even thought about leaving without you. I could never have done it though really. Never. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself knowing that I left you behind. Really, I wouldn't have ever been able to live without you."

Chandler moved his head away from Monica so he could see her face. "I just can't believe you're actually here." He touched her cheek lightly as though he thought it would disappear if he pressed too hard.

Monica leaned her cheek into his hand. "I'm here."

Chandler smiled, his eyes shining as he began to laugh, just for the joy of laughing.

Monica joined in as she hugged him again and he spun her around.

"How long have you been down here?" Monica asked, her smile filling her voice as he set her back onto the ground.

"A few weeks," Chandler responded, shrugging. "I was part of the first wave of aliens down here after the scouting party. I had to help them out for a while, but they let me go about a week ago. And you?" He turned to her.

"I just got down today. Vootil gave me a bike, told me to ride out this way to find food, and then scurried away before I could say anything, as you'd expect." She rolled her eyes.

"He never did get over our escape attempt, did he?" Chandler shook his head. "Aliens, am I right?"

Monica laughed at the typical Chandler line, surprised at how they were talking completely normally, as though their adventures with the aliens were stories about work or something entertaining one of their friends had done. …their friends...

Monica's face fell instantly at the thought of Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, and Joey. They were gone. Long gone.

"What is it, Mon?" Chandler asked, concerned, looping his arm around her side.

"We lost everyone, Chandler," Monica said sorrowfully. "All our friends and our families. They're all gone."

Chandler's face grew cloudy as he pulled her into a hug. "I know. I'm so sorry."

Monica pulled away from her friend and slapped him lightly in the arm.

"Um, ow!" Chandler said, rubbing his appendage.

"This isn't your fault, so stop acting like it is." Monica glared at him.

Instead of cowering, as he normally would have, Chandler burst out laughing.

"What?" Monica asked, indignantly, not a fan of being laughed at when she was trying to be serious.

"I'm sorry," Chandler said, wiping a tear from his eye, "but I just haven't seen that Monica glare in so long, and I missed it."

Monica sighed exasperatedly, but let herself laugh. "Lucky for you, you're stuck with me, because that glare's going to happen a lot."

Chandler smiled again and then grabbed her hand. "Pick up that leaf full of berries will you, I want to show you my illustrious food stores."

Monica laughed in reply, but picked up the berries anyway, as Chandler grabbed the leaf full of nuts.

"Back this way." He led her through the bushes back to the tree where his partially built shelter and bike were located.

"And voila!" Chandler pulled back a layer of vines that was covering a space under a decent sized bush. Inside his makeshift pantry were more nuts and berries of all kinds, as well as a variety of fruit and vegetables.

"Impressive, huh?" he said proudly, as he knelt down and emptied the nuts and berries he had collected into larger piles under the bush.

He stood up and brushed off his hands, turning to Monica with a sly smile on his face.

"What?" she asked, smiling herself.

"All right," he said, "there was a nuclear holocaust. I'm the last man on Earth. Will you go out with me?"

Monica stared at him, her mouth falling open as she remembered him saying those exact words to her on a beach less than two years earlier, well two years for them at least.

"I've got a fully stocked mini food pantry," he added, playing off his "I've got canned goods" line he used at the beach.

Monica stared at him for another minute until she burst out laughing.

"Hey!" Chandler said, affronted. "That was a real question!"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Monica waved her hands apologetically as her words jumbled together with her laughter. "It's just that the fact that we actually ended up in this situation is the funniest thing in the world to me right now," she finally said when her laughter died down.

Chandler smiled slightly as he looked at her. "I guess it is a bit humorous, but could you answer my question? I _am_ the last man on Earth. Now, will you _please_ go out with me?

Monica smiled in spite of herself. "Of course I will, Chandler. You're the greatest guy I've ever met. You _did_ try to save me from the aliens with no thought of yourself – twice. If that's not boyfriend material, then I don't know what is. There is absolutely no one in the world I would rather be stuck with alone on Earth for the rest of my life than you."

Chandler smiled the most adorable smile Monica had ever seen. "Really?" he said, cutely.

Monica clasped her hands with his, leaned in, and kissed him swiftly. "Really."

* * *

_A/N: This entire story was basically to allow for that last scene to happen (hence why I've spent so much time laughing hysterically over this). I really do hope you enjoyed this. Writing this was absolutely a day well spent for me._

_Thanks so much for reading! Reviews are lovely and are so so appreciated!_


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